Statewide Law Research Articles

CANCER-RELATED NEWS FROM THE CDC: State Preemption of Local Smoke-Free Laws in Government Work Sites, Private Work Sites, and Restaurants

CANCER-RELATED NEWS FROM THE CDC: State Preemption of Local Smoke-Free Laws in Government Work Sites, Private Work Sites, and Restaurants

Views About Secondhand Smoke and Smoke-Free Policies Among North Carolina Restaurant Owners Before Passage of a Law to Prohibit Smoking

This study examined the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about secondhand smoke and smoke-free policies among North Carolina restaurant owners and managers before passage of House Bill 2, which prohibited smoking in most restaurants and bars. A random sample of North Carolina restaurants was selected to participate. A 15-minute telephone survey was completed by 523 restaurant owners and managers (one per participating restaurant) who spoke English and operated a restaurant that had seating for guests and was not a corporate headquarters for a restaurant chain (response rate, 36.7%). Bivariable analyses using chi2 tests of association were conducted. Multivariable modeling with logistic regression was used to examine relationships among several predictor variables and current smoking policies at participating restaurants, support among owners and managers for a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants, and beliefs among owners and managers about the economic impact of smoke-free policies. Restaurant owners and managers were aware that secondhand smoke causes cancer and asthma (79% and 73% or respondents, respectively) but were less aware that it causes heart attacks (56%). Sixty-six percent of restaurants did not permit any smoking indoors. Sixty percent of owners and managers supported a statewide smoke-free law. Owners and managers who were current smokers, those who worked at a restaurant with an employee smoking prevalence of more than 25%, and those who worked in a restaurant without a 700% smoke-free policy were significantly less likely to support a statewide law requiring smoke-free public places. Only owner and manager smoking status and no current smoke-free indoor policy were significant independent predictors of the belief that instituting a smoke-free policy would have negative economic consequences for the restaurant. Although participating establishments were a representative sample of North Carolina restaurants, an overall survey response rate of 36.7% limits the generalizability of these findings. Most North Carolina restaurant owners and managers in our sample had a smoke-free indoor policy and supported a law to make public places smoke-free. Results were used to strengthen interventions that create a safe and healthy environment for restaurant employees and customers, in anticipation of passage of House Bill 2.

Bicycle helmet use among children in the United States: The effects of legislation, personal and household factors

Introduction Children ages 5-14 years have the highest rate of bicycle-related injuries in the country. Bicycle helmets can prevent head and brain injuries, which represent the most serious type of bicycle-related injury. Objectives This paper compares children's bicycle helmet use to that estimated from an earlier study, and explores regional differences in helmet use by existing helmet legislation. Methods This study was a cross-sectional, list-assisted random-digit-dial telephone survey. Interviews were completed by 9,684 respondents during 2001-2003. The subset with at least one child in the household age 5-14 years (2,409 respondents) answered questions about bicycle helmet use for a randomly selected child in their household. Results Almost half (48%) of the children always wore their helmet, 23% sometimes wore their helmet, and 29% never wore their helmet. Helmet wearing was significantly associated with race, ethnicity, and child age but was not associated with the sex of the child. Other significant predictors of use included household income, household education, census region, and bicycle helmet law status. Statewide laws were more effective than laws covering smaller areas. The proportion of children who always wore a helmet increased from 25% in 1994 to 48% in 2001-2002. Significant increases in helmet use from 20% to 26% were seen among both sexes, younger (5-9 years) and older (10-14 years) children, and in all four regions of the country. Conclusions While there has been substantial progress in the number of children who always wear their helmets, more than half do not. Further progress will require using a combination of methods that have been shown to successfully promote consistent helmet use. Impact on industry: minimal.

Cultural Norms and Political Mobilization: Accounting for Local and State-Level Liquor Laws, 1907–1919

During the decade prior to the adoption of federal prohibition in 1920, states across the country created local and statewide laws banning alcohol sales. This paper examines the relationship between cultural groups (urban, religious, and immigrant populations) and the adoption of prohibition legislation. Unlike previous research which concentrates on only a few states, this study provides a nationwide comparison of census data, business directories that identify the location of saloons by county, and county-level voting results. The results demonstrate that, while cultural factors played a prominent role in determining local policies towards saloons, these factors mattered less in state-level prohibition referenda. In these statewide contests, it was the location of saloons that often proved to be the most important factor in determining voting outcomes.

News and Notes

News and Notes

A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF MOTOR VEHICLE CRASHES AT AN URBAN CHILDRENʼS HOSPITAL FOLLOWING AN EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION ON CHILD RESTRAINT.

Purpose Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Studies have shown that use of proper safety restraints can improve the rate of death and injuries. Since 1998, Alabama has made significant improvements in MV legislation, educational services, and established car seat-fitting programs. Consequently, significant increases in car seat use have occurred. This study analyzes MVC trauma patient visits at a local pediatric trauma center from 1998 through 2005. The primary study question is do recent improvements in MV safety in Alabama lead to discernible changes in pediatric MVC visits at a hospital trauma center? Methods A trauma database is maintained by the trauma service coordinator at the Children9s Hospital of Alabama. All patients who are activated as trauma patients are entered into the database. MVC data include basic demographic information, type of trauma, if restraints were used, and, if so, what kind. Injury severity scores and disposition information were also noted. After institutional review board approval, the database was accessed for MVA trauma code information. Data were analyzed using Epi Info®. Results Since 1998, the total number of trauma codes has averaged 446 per year. The proportion of MVC codes has decreased from 52.6% of total codes in 1998 to 46.4% in 2005 (z = 1.78, p = 08). The average age of the MVC patient in 1998 was 8.2 years compared with 9.0 years in 2005. The percentage of MVC trauma patients discharged from the hospital has not changed (95.3% in 1998 compared with 95.9% in 2005). The number of MVC trauma patients using some form of restraint increased from 37.6% in 1998 to 51.3% in 2005 (z = 4.05, p Conclusions Statewide MV laws, educational interventions, and car seat-fitting services working in tandem can lead to significant increases in car seat use with corresponding decreases in MVC injury. This research demonstrates that such decreases can be detected at local levels using trauma code patient data sets. These data sets are a useful surveillance method that can help evaluate the effectiveness of statewide interventions.

Localism and the Creation of a State Police in Arkansas

EFFORTS TO CREATE STATE POLICE FORCES in the United States during the first four decades of the twentieth century faced a number of practical and ideological obstacles. This proved especially true in the South where state governments tended to be poorer than their northern counterparts and thus less able to afford the cost of such a force. A more important factor working against the creation of state police forces was the South's traditional preference for local control. This preference for localism, or, as Edward Ayers more precisely described it, republicanism, opposed any attempts, no matter how noble minded, to invest an outside entity with authority over community affairs.1 The clearest expression of Arkansans' longstanding desire for local control can be seen in the 1874 state constitution, which has been described by one scholar of Arkansas politics as specifically designed to protect citizens from possible oppression by their own state government. Pervasive distrust of Diane Blair said, expressed in almost every section of the 1874 document.2 The document, for example, sharply limited the governor's power to appoint officials and allowed his vetoes to be overridden by a simple majority, while rendering the legislature a part-time institution with strictly limited taxing authority. With a constitution that marginalized state government, power and influence fell to local elites who wielded a significant amount of control over elected officials at the local and state levels.3 That Arkansans proved particularly stubborn in their adherence to localistic republicanism is suggested by the fact that Arkansas remained one of the few states without a statewide law enforcement agency in January 1935. Tracing the repeated efforts to create a state police force shows just how deep this ideology ran, even though such a body, like many other Progressive-era agencies, had the potential to provide numerous benefits for the state's residents. The ultimate success of the state police movement, therefore, represented a significant turning point, both symbolic and actual, in Arkansans' understanding of state government and its role in their daily lives. As 1935 dawned, few obvious signs existed that Arkansans' suspicion of a statewide police force would be overcome, especially considering the dire financial straits in which many of the state's residents found themselves. Arkansas had never been a rich state and the decline of cotton prices in the 192Os coupled with the advent of the Great Depression in 1929 led to economic and social disaster by the early 1930s. The outlook for impoverished Arkansans darkened even further in late 1934 when the Federal Emergency Relief Administration threatened to cut off all federal assistance to more than 400,000 people within the state unless the legislature committed $1.5 million in matching funds by March 1935.4 While resolving the state's financial crisis and locating matching funds were the most pressing issues facing the governor and the legislature as the fiftieth session of the General Assembly gathered in January 1935, another matter promised to generate a tremendous amount of statewide interest and debate: the attempt to repeal prohibition within the state. For Gov. J. M. Futrell, the issues of state finance, liquor, and the creation of a state police force were tightly intertwined. Legalizing the consumption, manufacturing, and transportation of alcohol had the potential to provide a tremendous inflow of new revenue through the levying of excise taxes, avoiding the political damage that a property tax increase could inflict. Yet Futrell clearly doubted the state had the means to adequately regulate such a system. He also recognized the current legal system's deficiencies in adequately and impartially enforcing state laws and argued that the best way to correct them was through the creation of a state police force. He told one supporter, There are some sheriffs who are trustworthy-some of them are not. …

Iowa College Students' Attitudes Toward Official English Legislation: An Exploratory Study

In Iowa, overwhelmingly White and monolingual, 11 counties have declared English their official language, and a statewide law has been under consideration by the legislature. Against a backdrop of changing language and racial demographics, why do some Iowans perceive the need for "official English" legislation or English-only workplace rules? Why do others reject such measures? To what extent are the attitudes of Iowans reflective of the national debate on official English laws? To what extent are they grounded in local realities? In an exploratory survey of 745 undergraduate-student Iowans, attitudes toward the need for an official English law and the reasoning behind those opinions are examined. Challenges and opportunities for language educators are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.

Tobacco Institute lobbying at the state and local levels of government in the 1990s

Objective: To describe variation in Tobacco Institute (TI) lobbying expenditures across states and test whether these expenditures vary in relationship to measures of tobacco control activity at the state level....

The Retention of State Level Concealed Handgun Laws: Empirical Evidence from Interest Group and Legislative Models

The present research extends the work of Lott and Mustard (1997) by offering the first categorical examination (using an ordered logit model) of various types of right-to-carry handgun legislation across the50 states for 1997. Such an examination is based on the “market for laws” construct built by Crain (1979) and Benson and Engin (1988), which points out that various interest group (demand side) and legislative (firm, supply side) considerations are important in modeling legislation activity at the state level. To that end, we include a number of property rights, demographic and legislative institutional variables as explanatory factors in ordered log it models and tests for nonnested hypotheses. In general, we find that the property-rights movement has significantly shaped these statewide laws as pointed out by variables which measure the amount of federal land present within each state, per-capita income, and death-row inmate executions. Population density, Republican representation, length of legislative sessions and female legislative representation have also had significant impacts on the retention of various forms of right-to-carry legislation.

Survey of State EMS-DNR Laws and Protocols

Author presents the results of a survey of state emergency medical services do-not-resuscitate laws and protocols that have been implemented statewide and describes their structural and operational characteristics, as well as responses from key state contacts on program challenges and issues.

Why are the Japanese living longer?

<h3>Background</h3> Children ages 5–14 years have the highest rate of bicycle-related injuries in the country. However, helmet use among US children remains low. This paper compares children9s helmet use to that estimated from an earlier study, and explores regional differences by existing helmet legislation. <h3>Methods</h3> Telephone interviews were completed by 9684 respondents. The subset with at least one child in the household (2409 respondents) answered questions about their bicycle helmet use. <h3>Results</h3> Almost half (48%) of the children always wore their helmet, 23% (373) sometimes wore their helmet, and 29% (477) never wore their helmet. Helmet wearing was significantly associated with race, ethnicity and child age (p values &lt;0.01) but was not associated with the sex of the child. Other significant predictors (p values &lt;0.01) of helmet use included household income, household education, census region and bicycle helmet law status. State-wide laws were more effective than laws covering smaller areas. The proportion of children who always wore a helmet increased from 25% in 1994 to 48.2% in 2001–2002. Significant increases in use from 20% to 26% were seen among both sexes, younger and older children, and in all four regions of the country. <h3>Conclusions</h3> While there has been substantial progress in the number of children who always wear their bicycle helmets, more than half do not. The task at hand is to maximise the use of helmets by taking full advantage of methods that promote consistent helmet use.

State and Local Regulation of Private Forestry in the East

Abstract State and local regulation of private forestry in the eastern United States is increasing. A number of statewide laws regulate the practice of forestry in some fashion. Many local governments in the northeastern states and a few in the South have enacted or considered ordinances governing logging operations, primarily to prevent property damage or to preserve amenity values. The trend toward disjointed local regulation may prompt renewed calls from the forestry sector for uniform state forest practice laws. North. J. Appl. For. 5:103-108, June 1988.

Status of Fluoridation in the United States and Canada, 1966

This report of the AWWA Committee on Water Fluoridation was presented on June 6, 1967, at AWWA's Annual Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The report retains the style of presentation begun the year before. Only statistical summaries of the progress of fluoridation are provided. The names of communities adding fluoridation in 1966 are not reported. These are available from the various state health departments or from the U.S. Public Health Service. The most noteworthy development during 1966 was the preparation or adoption of four statewide laws or regulations requiring fluoridation of public water supplies in Minnesota, Kentucky, Michigan and Illinois.

The State Police Movement in the South

Assumption by the state of active responsibility for its long dormant powers in the police field has been one of the outstanding developments of recent years in American police administration. The formation of police agencies under state auspices has resulted in great variations in type, although a trend can be noted toward the creation of police forces possessing general police powers.! The present status of the state police movement is strikingly illustrated by the existence of police agencies with statewide law enforcement powers in forty-six states, of which nineteen are state police and twenty-seven are highway police.2 South Dakota has a number of officers assigned to the Attorney-General's office, leaving Wisconsin as the only state possessing neither a state nor a highway police. The rapidity with which the movement has spread is seen from the fact that as late as 1933 only thirty-five states possessed police agencies. Although the first state police was created in Texas at an early time,' the state police movement tbok its modern form in 1905 in Pennsylvania. In turn, other states in the East, including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and West Virginia, created forces following in general the Pennsylvania pattern. Michigan and Oregon also established police forces, but, in the main, state police were confined to the East until a